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Kabul bans Pakistani newspapers
Source: Agencies |
September 23, 2012, Sunday
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AFGHANISTAN has banned all Pakistani newspapers over what security officials say is anti-government propaganda aimed at Kabul, an interior ministry spokesman said yesterday, in a move likely to worsen already tense cross-border ties.
Pakistani newspapers are usually filled with statements that the Afghan government does not properly represent its people and that its NATO-led allies are "occupying" the country, rather than offering security support, spokesman Ihsanuddin Taheri said.
Some papers have also published speeches by Taliban insurgency leaders, he added, at a time when the government is trying to lure the Taliban into peace talks aimed at ending the 11-year Afghan war.
"We totally reject these statements and the ban is to show them this," said Taheri, adding the ban could only be reversed by a ministerial decree.
"The news is not based in reality and it is creating concerns for our countrymen in the eastern provinces of Afghanistan," the ministry said in a statement. "Also, the newspapers are a propaganda resource of the Taliban spokesmen."
Afghan border police have been ordered to sweep shops in the eastern provinces of Nuristan, Kunar and Nangarhar near the Pakistan border to seize copies of Pakistani papers, he said.
The eastern area has been a focus for foreign and Afghan security operations against insurgents over the summer ahead of a NATO pullout of most combat troops by 2014.
The tensions between the two countries were highlighted on Thursday at a UN Security Council meeting, when Afghan Foreign Minister Zalmai Rassoul called on Pakistan to stop shelling in the border province of Kunar, which he said has killed dozens of civilians. He said the attacks were jeopardizing bilateral relations "with potential negative consequences for necessary bilateral cooperation for peace, security and economic development in our two countries ..."
Many Pakistani Taliban fighters have fled to Kunar and surrounding areas after Pakistan's army pushed them out of its tribal region, taking advantage of the US military's withdrawal of most of its forces from these Afghan border provinces in recent years.
Pakistan's foreign minister Hina Rabbani Khar said on Thursday her country would soon hold confidential talks with the US and Afghanistan to improve a three-way counterterrorism relationship beset by misunderstandings.
Pakistani newspapers are usually filled with statements that the Afghan government does not properly represent its people and that its NATO-led allies are "occupying" the country, rather than offering security support, spokesman Ihsanuddin Taheri said.
Some papers have also published speeches by Taliban insurgency leaders, he added, at a time when the government is trying to lure the Taliban into peace talks aimed at ending the 11-year Afghan war.
"We totally reject these statements and the ban is to show them this," said Taheri, adding the ban could only be reversed by a ministerial decree.
"The news is not based in reality and it is creating concerns for our countrymen in the eastern provinces of Afghanistan," the ministry said in a statement. "Also, the newspapers are a propaganda resource of the Taliban spokesmen."
Afghan border police have been ordered to sweep shops in the eastern provinces of Nuristan, Kunar and Nangarhar near the Pakistan border to seize copies of Pakistani papers, he said.
The eastern area has been a focus for foreign and Afghan security operations against insurgents over the summer ahead of a NATO pullout of most combat troops by 2014.
The tensions between the two countries were highlighted on Thursday at a UN Security Council meeting, when Afghan Foreign Minister Zalmai Rassoul called on Pakistan to stop shelling in the border province of Kunar, which he said has killed dozens of civilians. He said the attacks were jeopardizing bilateral relations "with potential negative consequences for necessary bilateral cooperation for peace, security and economic development in our two countries ..."
Many Pakistani Taliban fighters have fled to Kunar and surrounding areas after Pakistan's army pushed them out of its tribal region, taking advantage of the US military's withdrawal of most of its forces from these Afghan border provinces in recent years.
Pakistan's foreign minister Hina Rabbani Khar said on Thursday her country would soon hold confidential talks with the US and Afghanistan to improve a three-way counterterrorism relationship beset by misunderstandings.
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